Thursday, July 1, 2021
Electronic Protection refers to the ability of sensors, like radios and radars, to keep functioning as designed when in the midst of Electronic Warfare. It means that the sensors have ways to keep working, even when it encounters jammers or inadvertent electromagnetic interference. One would assume that every sensor used by the military would have robust Electronic Protection built into it, but that would not be a good assumption. In fact, as pointed out by David Tremper, director of Electronic Warfare at the Office of the Undersecretary of Acquisition, at the AOC CEMA Conference, “One of the messages I delivered to the EXCOM was that we need to be better about testing EP, we need to be better about exercising EP, we don’t have oversight.” Testing Systems for EP would require that they be tested while in the presence of any known jammers that they may encounter. To do this, we would need a comprehensive data base of jammers, and operational tests of systems would include testing operations in the presence of known jammers. Unfortunately, David Tremper points out that such a data base does not currently exist, and it is sorely needed. Testing today does not require that systems demonstrate Electronic Protection. You can read more about David Tremper’s remarks here.
So, what do you think? Is Electronic Protection really something that has “slipped through the cracks” in our military systems, or is the military simply exercising Information Warfare to lull the adversary into thinking they would have the upper hand in an Electronic Warfare attack? Unfortunately, the author has no way of answering this question, and anyone who knows the answer surely would not provide the answer. It just seems to me that Electronic Protection would have to be a robust capability in any military sensor.
This is just one of many intriguing topics in Electronic Warfare. If you would like to learn more about Electronic Warfare, consider taking the 3-day ATI short course entitled “21st Century Electronic Warfare’ being offered virtually starting on July 20. You can register for this course here. While on the ATI Web Page, check out of the other upcoming ATI Courses you may be interested in.
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